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The religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians were the dominating influence in the development of their culture. The Egyptian faith was based on a collection of ancient myths, nature worship, and innumerable deities. Sumerian lives were spent serving the gods in the form of man-made statues. There was no organized set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. The Sumerians were probably the first to write down their beliefs, which were the inspiration for much of later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology. Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk enclosed by a tin dome. While the Mesopotamian’s didn’t have anything quit to scale with the pyramids, they did use and build ziggurats for religious purposes.

Both civilizations were centered on religion. Egypt believed in many gods. The gods Mesopotamia believed in tended to be absolute rulers to whom the people owed total devotion. In both civilizations religious leaders were given very high status and held in high regard. Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt are two religions that believed in monotheism. Both Egypt and Mesopotamia were polytheistic, that is, they believed their worlds were ruled by more than one god. Both civilizations believed that the gods created them. Both cultures also believed that they themselves were created for the purpose of serving their gods. Both worshipers took their names from the numerous gods and the cults that honored the deities, and priests in both religions were no special clothes, and made daily offering in the temples and held annual festivals open to public.

Mesopotamian religion saw humans as the servants of the gods, who had to be appeased for protection. Egyptians believed that the gods created all humans but were also controlled by the principle of maat, or order. Unlike followers of Mesopotamian religion, the Egyptians had a strong belief in the afterlife, which they expressed by building elaborate tombs such as the pyramids. The Sumerian afterlife involved a descent into a gloomy netherworld to spend eternity in a wretched existence as a Gidim (ghost). Egyptians believed that their gods had created Egypt as a sort of refuge of good and order in a world filled with chaos and disorder. The major god for much of Mesopotamia was the sky god Enlil; later th e worship of Enlil was replaced by the worship of the Babylonian god Marduk. For Egyptians, Amen-Ra was the most powerful deity, chief of the pantheon. Statues of winged bulls were a protective symbol related to the god Sin Mesopotamia, while the ankh, a kind of cross with a loop at the top, was a prominent representation of life in ancient Egypt. The Enuma Elish tells the Mesopotamian story of creation and explains how Marduk became the chief of the gods. The Egyptian Book of the Dead was a guide for the dead, setting out magic spells and charms to be used to pass judgment in the afterlife. Ancient Nippur was the site of the chief temple to Enlil, while Babylon was the location of Marduk’s sanctuary. Thebes and the temple complex of Karnak were home to the worship of Amen- Ra. In the modern world the remains of these early religions can be seen in Egypt’s pyramids, tombs for the pharaohs, and in Mesopotamia’s ziggurats, temples to the gods. The New Year’s Festival was a major event in Mesopotamian religion, while Egypt’s most important festival was Opet. Because Egypt was the “gift of the Nile” and generally prosperous and harmonious, Egyptian gods tended to reflect a positive religion with an emphasis on a positive afterlife. In contrast, Mesopotamian religion was bleak and gloomy. Ancient Mesopotamian prayers demonstrate the lack of relationships with gods and goddesses who viewed humans with suspicion and frequently sent calamities to remind everyone of their humanity. Such was the message found in the Gilgamesh Epic.

Although the religions of both civilizations shared many similarities, the differences were vast. The most notable ones are the importance and belief of afterlife and the relationship between Gods. Because of these differences, we believe, the civilizations were different because in early times, civilizations revolved around their beliefs and values but unfortunately, there was an end to these great civilizations.

The number markings on precious gold jewelry are a bit of confusion to lots of people. We are generally used to seeing a karat or silver mark like this: 10K, 14K, 18K, Sterling, etc. The numbers mean the same thing.

For 14k the number is technically 583 but most manufacturers adopted the European way and make 14k gold a tiny bit over 14k, so the mark is 585 in most 14k jewelry. 18K is marked 750. If the mark is valid and there is a makers mark also in the jewelry, the number means these items are 18k gold.

Here is where the numbers come from. Pure gold is called 24 karat. For 18k gold, there are 18 parts of pure gold mixed with other metals to make the metal suitable for use in jewelry. 24k is too soft alone to stand up or to hold stones well. 18 parts pure gold divided by 24, or 18/24 equals 750. That is where the number comes from. The jewelry is 75% pure gold, 750 parts gold with 250 parts other metals out of “1000″ parts. It is easier to think of it as a percent which is pure gold in the recipe.

Sterling silver is marked 925. Sterling is 92.5% pure silver and the rest is other metal, generally copper.

What does it mean if the ring marked 14K PR? The 14K simply means it is 14K (Karat) gold and because of the K means it would have been made in either South East Asia or The United States. The PR marks are just the Maker or Store ID or even a design mark, and have no relevance to the Value.

The basic decimal formula to work out the quality of gold content is quite simple, as they are all measured in ‘Parts per Thousand.’ This means that 9ct gold is calculated like this: 9 (for 9ct) is divided by pure gold (24) and then multiplied by 1000 (for pure gold as a decimal). ie: 9/24*1000=375 That 375 is the decimal quality for 9ct gold and is sometimes shown with a decimal point in front – .375

The old Victorian standard of 15ct gold is calculated the same way – 15/24*1000 = 625 (Not quite the numbers you have on your jewelry. Dental gold is 16ct or 666 recurring. But you can also reverse this formula by starting with the decimal and working back. ie: 375/1000*24 = 9

In your case we can use 698/1000*24 = almost 17ct

I have a platinum engagement ring and found a wedding ring that I really like but the band is made of palladium. Is it safe to wear these two metals together without one damaging the other?

It will wear the softer metal OVER TIME but that could take many years. My Grandmothers wedding ring eventually wore away the band of her engagement ring but it took over 20 years to do.

Platinum and Palladium and quite good together but I would take the advice of your local friendly jeweler and have them check both rings. Sometimes the Platinum may be a lower grade in order to make it harder – so have that checked.

Are there any shortcuts in SEO? Does it really need to take more than 3 months to get out of Google sandbox for new domains? Still there are a lot people arguing if there is a Sandbox. The answer would depend on the definition of what 'sandbox' means. If a 'sandbox' means the un-favorable situation which a new website would rank for competitive keywords, then 'sandbox' really exists.

In my SEO experience, a new website would not rank very well in its first level keywords. How does Google decide what are the first level keywords in a website? Google has a very smart calculation for this. If the keyword phrases are in your title tap, and also in your headline or even in your bold text, you are almost guaranteed Google would find out what your first level keyword phrases are. If you have some valuable links, you would probably rank well in your second level keyword phrases, but not the keywords you most desire. About half month after your first PageRank update, your ranking of your first level keyword phrases would gradually increase. And about another half month, the true value of your ranking positions in all keyword phrases would show. This process would take about 4 months in total. That's right! 3 month to wait for the first PageRank update, another month for graduate rankings increase.

That comes to the question-is there any shortcut to the sandbox situation? Yes, many people have tried, and it works. Go to some auction sites and buy an old domain name, the older the better. You have to be very careful that this old domain you are buying is not a banned site. If the domain has a PageRank which would be safe to buy. If the content of this old domain was doing something near your new website topic would be even better. Then, you 301 redirect the old website to your new website. About 3 weeks later, you are ranking as if you are a trusted old website. If you wonder how to do the 301 redirect, you can search for '301 redirect code', people teach you all that.

3 weeks compare to 4 months in the Sandbox is an amazing deal. If you are still thinking 3 weeks is a little too long, then you may build your website directly in this old domain. The disadvantage is that the old domain name may not be your favor. And the existing backlinks of this old domain may somehow look strange to Google because of the un-relevant contents and anchor text of the link page. You may be thinking-is it that same if I '301 redirect' the old domain to your new website? The backlinks of the old domain is still not relevant. Would it harm my new website? No, because the action of '301 redirect' is made in the old domain. Your new website does not need to do anything with this action. Remember Google in its official page saying that never hurts you!

If you still worry, you might think in this way: imagine if there is a competitor who would like to pull you down from the ranking, then your competitor '301 redirect' a web page with illegal content to your website. Do you think you would really be pull down? If this '301 redirect' would anyhow harm you, a lot of sites would not exist in this moment. '301 redirect' should not harm you anyhow.

The words credit cards and teenagers used in the same sentence is enough to strike terror in the hearts of most parents, and with good reason. Teenagers like to spend money. There is no way around it. There are clothes, music, movies, shoes, games, junk food and an assortment of other things to buy when you are a teenager. A credit card would certainly get them into trouble in no time. However, there is such a thing as prepaid credit cards for teenagers. This could be the answer for both you and your teenagers.

Getting a credit card of this kind for your teenager can set him on the path of learning how to manage money responsibly and earning some positive money managing skills. So while a regular credit card would most likely be too much temptation to handle, prepaid credit cards for teenagers can actually be a good idea.

If you are thinking of this as an option for your teenager, there are several different programs to investigate. You will want to explore just what choices there are available for prepaid credit cards for teenagers, and then select the one that suits you and your teenager best.

First Bank & Trust of Brookings, SD offers the Allow Prepaid Mastercard. This is a prepaid credit card for high school students and teenagers. It also comes with parental control to help monitor your teen's spending. There is an activation fee of $ 19.95 as well as a reload fee of $ 2.50 per $ 100. The monthly maintenance fee is $ 3.50.

The US Bank Visa Buxx Card is specifically made for teenagers 13 years and older. For this prepaid credit card for teenagers, there is an enrollment fee of $ 10 – $ 15 dollars and a reload fee of free to $ 2.50. There is not actually a monthly maintenance fee for this card. However, this is a $ 2 fee for an inactive account that is applied monthly if needed.

The above are examples of what is available in the form of prepaid credit cards for teenagers. Of course you will want to do your own research and possibly check with your bank to see if they have any sort of plan available for your teenager. If you have an active checking account with a financial institution, you may find a better deal in securing a prepaid credit card for your teenager. Whatever card you choose, be sure that you make full use of the parental monitoring of spending option. This is about learning to manage money and spending spreads will not help in this pursuit.